A calf in Gandhi's Sabarmati ashram was maimed and in agony, surgeons had said it was beyond help. It was killed to be put out of misery. This triggered a controversy with the Mahatma received many angry letters. He expressed his views on the matter in the Gujarati weekly Navjivan in October 1928.
"In the circumstances, I felt that humanity demanded that the agony should be ended by ending life itself. The matter was placed before the whole ashram. Finally, in all humility but with the cleanest of convictions I got in my presence a doctor to administer the calf a quietus by means of a poison injection, and the whole thing was over in less than two minutes. "Would I apply to human beings the principle I've enunciated in connection with the calf? Would I like it to be applied in my own case? My reply is yes. Just as a surgeon doesn't commit himsa when he wields his knife on his patient's body for the latter's benefit, similarly one may find it necessary under certain imperative circumstances to go a step further and sever life from the body in the interest of the sufferer."
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